Lawyers' bill for Bloody Sunday probe hits £100m

Lawyers have taken fees worth almost £100million from the decade-long Bloody Sunday inquiry, it has emerged.

The price of barristers and solicitors representing families, soldiers, interested parties, the Ministry of Defence and the inquiry itself amounts to more than half the entire cost of the tribunal.

And the legal bill is still going up because the judge heading the inquiry continues to pay its own lawyers as he prepares a final report.

That will not be ready to hand over to ministers until the end of next year.

The inquiry headed by Lord Saville of Newdigate, which is by far the longest-running legal tribunal in British history, is expected to cost at least £188million.

It is still running up bills at a rate of around £400,000 a month, and has spent £27million since the last witness gave evidence in January 2005.

The amount taken by lawyers has always been one of the controversies surrounding the tribunal.

Christopher Clarke, QC, who is counsel to the inquiry, has earned more than £3million. And the inquiry's solicitors Eversheds is thought to have billed for more than £12million.

Left-wing QC Michael Mansfield, who acted for families of victims - who has said his usual earnings are around £300,000 a year - billed the inquiry for more than £682,000.

Senior lawyers were paid £1,500 a day including preparation time.

The judicial investigation into the shooting dead of 14 civil rights protesters by paratroopers in Londonderry in January 1972 was announced in 1998 by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The total of £98.4million for inquiry and MoD lawyers was disclosed by Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward in the Commons.

Tory Northern Ireland spokesman Owen Paterson said: 'This seems like an extraordinary amount of money. Everyone is watching their spending as the country descends into a recession and so should this inquiry.'

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: 'It was always going to have to look at a lot of evidence but it is unfair to treat taxpayers like an endless pot of money. No good reason has been put forward for these endless delays and everyone needs to see some progress.'

A spokesman for the Saville Inquiry said yesterday: 'The bills from the outside lawyers have all gone through a scrutiny process. We had four years of hearings and we have been in existence for ten years and we have carried out a significant amount of work.'